“They’ve been like this for the past two days” said Elizabeth to her best friend Camile, gesturing to the three guys sleeping soundly in the living room of her and Zacky’s apartment.

Camile looked around the room with her plump lips hanging open slightly. Her sky blue eyes widened at the sight of Matt snoring loudly on the floor.

“He sure looks yummy” Camille giggled, blushing slightly as she pointed with a jerk of her head at Matt.

Elizabeth chuckled softly at the scarlet that colored Camille’s face. Of course Camille would blush; she had been head over heels for Matt since the first time she ran into him in the kitchen during one of the nights Camille crashed at Elizabeth’s place. She had literally run into Matt as she flew around the corner  to get some ice-cream. Matt just laughed and caught her before she fell backwards. It was from that night that Camille was smitten. Elizabeth could understand why too; Matt was gorgeous, with his honey colored eyes and well-built body, but he wasn’t Elizabeth’s cup of tea. Camille couldn’t stop talking about her encounter with Matt after that. For nights on end, Elizabeth had to hear Camille giggle about how cute his dimples were and how hot his tattoos were.

“Where’s your cousin and Jimmy?” asked Camille looking around for Zacky who was nowhere to be found.

“Jimmy’s in Zacky’s room and Zacky….well….” Elizabeth’s voice trailed off as she opened the door to her bedroom. Camille stepped inside and found Zacky lying on his stomach wrapped up untidily in Elizabeth’s lilac colored sheets.

“You think they’re still alive?” asked Camille, making Elizabeth let out a hoot of laughter. Sometimes her best friend could be a little on the blonde side.

“From the sounds of Matt and Johnny’s snores, I think they are alive Cammy” laughed Elizabeth.

Camille’s cheeks flushed and she playfully punched her friend. 

“Well, you know what we can do…”said Camille mischievously, digging in her purse until she found a sharpie.

Elizabeth’s eyes lit up at what her best friend was suggesting. “oh yeh!!” she agreed, grabbing a black sharpie from her desk. “But we can’t forget the best part” she said walking over to her dresser and grabbing two tubes of lipstick.

“Fantastic” said Camille impishly, uncapping her marker and taking the bright red lipstick from Elizabeth. “Dibs on Matt”. The two girls practically skipped towards Zacky’s sleeping form and began drawing flowers and hearts, not to mention some naughty images on his face. Totally dead to the world, Zacky didn’t even flinch. They finished their masterpiece with putting the Fuchsia colored lipstick all over Zacky’s lips. Stifling their laughter, they snapped a picture with Elizabeth’s camera and headed to the living room.

Attacking the three guys fast asleep in the living room, the two girls had a field day. They wrote the word Potato on both Johnny and Brian’s foreheads and Penis on Matt’s forehead with a nice drawing of a penis to match. They gave them all a combination of moustaches of varying shapes and goatees, not forgetting to give them lovely painted lips. As Camille put the finishing touches on Matt’s face, he groaned and she shrieked with laughter moving backwards as his eyelashes fluttered. He rolled over and a loud snore indicated that he was still knocked out.

The girls laughed and continued to snap pictures. No way would they miss out on an opportunity like this when it was handed to them on a silver platter.

Creeping towards Zacky’s bedroom they found Jimmy with his arm thrown over his eyes to block out the light. They struggled to maintain composure as they tiptoed towards him. They removed his arm carefully from over his eyes and began their assault on him. They drew squiggles and random shapes and gave him whiskers. Camille put some of the red lip stick on his lips while Elizabeth got ready to take the picture.

Laughing loudly, knowing that if none of them had woken up during their attack they wouldn’t  be disturbed by some laughter, they walked towards the kitchen, leaving Zacky’s bedroom door ajar.

Camille took a seat at the table while Elizabeth rummaged through the cupboards looking for the bottle of red wine she picked up earlier.

“So how are you feeling?” asked Camille still smiling.

Elizabeth uncorked the bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and began pouring some into 2 wine glasses.

“It’s the strangest thing in the world Cammy.” said Elizabeth handing her friend the glass.

They clinked their glasses and took a sip. Elizabeth leaned back against the counter by the sink, facing Camille. “I woke up the next morning and I was totally healed.” She said appreciatively, “The only reminder that something did happen is the pink skin where the cuts were on my waist.”

Camille’s eyes widened in surprise “you have some sort of miracle rapid healing thing running through your veins” she said in awe. “That’s so friggin cool Liz”

Elizabeth sighed and took another sip of wine. She wasn’t really fond of red wine, she preferred white wine more but she was kind of in the mood for the taste of the red.

“I dunno. I’m just glad I’m ok” she said shaking her hair out as she pulled it free of the ponytail.

“You’re so lucky you have Zacky” said Camille wistfully, glancing towards the living room where Matt’s snores had softened to a low rumble every now and then. “You guys have that whole eat, pray, love thing going on.”

Elizabeth smiled at the thought of Zacky. She really was lucky to have a cousin like him, He always had her back, even when they were little kids. He was fearless, when he needed to be. He had hardened himself up so much that he had started to become cold. But he never once showed that side to her. SHe had picked up on it and tried to get him to ease up, but he would always remind her that if he did that then someone would use it to their advantage. He had to be strong for them both he had told her. It wasn’t something that Elizabeth had wanted; Zacky just took it upon himself to do so.  He was her staunchest defender. And now, she didn’t have just one. She had four more to add to that count.

“Yeah well, it wasn’t always like that. Before, back in Sacramento it things were hard, especially for the two of us. Its like the asshole gene ran through the family and my dad and Zacky’s  got an extra share. It was always bad when we were growing up and only got worse as we got older.” Elizabeth said truthfully. She never had any reason not to confide in Camille.
There was something comforting about being around her. “Sometimes it got really close to drink, snap, slap I guess you can say the we were both leaning on the hope that we would be saved. But I guess we really saved ourselves.”

Camille shook her head and took a gulp of her wine. “At least the two of you are away from all of that. And Zacky has his band mates for support. It’s like one big happy family with those guys”

Elizabeth smiled and took a gulp of her wine as well. “yeah, at least he has those guys. It makes my life both good and bad. Bad being when they get drunk here.” She said with a laugh.

The girls sat in the kitchen talking and laughing for the following forty five minutes. Elizabeth’s stomach began to grumble and she glanced at the wall clock. “It’s eight thirty already” she sighed.

Camille smiled at her and then rubbed her stomach. “I’m starving”

They settled on making a lasagna for the two of them to eat. They worked together effortlessly mostly because Camille knew her way around the kitchen due to the amount of time she spent at Elizabeth’s place. Heating a large pot with water and another for browning the minced meat, Camille turned to begin cutting up the seasoning. Elizabeth went over to the fridge and instead of taking out one pack of ground beef, she took out two. Camille’s eyebrows shot up as she looked at Elizabeth.

“Expecting company?” she joked.

Elizabeth laughed “I just have a feeling that those guys are gonna….”

He words were cut off by someone bellowing “What the fucking hell?!!!!” causing the two of them to jump. They looked at each other and burst out laughing. Matt was up and had clearly seen his face.

Matt Barreled into the kitchen looking livid, the girls doubled over laughing even harder.

“You think this is funny???!!!” he shouted pointing at his face.

Barely able to speak the two of them nodded. From behind him, there were more shouts that matched Matt’s.

Johnny and Brian came into the kitchen looking rather irritated. “Are you fucking kidding me??” roared Brian, his bright lipstick smudged slightly.

Tears in the girls eyes, Elizabeth managed to squeak out “It’s a good look Bri.” And then continued her hysterical laughter. Matt growled and then grinned as his eyes fell on Camille who held up a pot spoon to defend herself with. Brian launched himself towards Elizabeth who flitted out of his way in the nick of time. He ran her around the kitchen and down the corridor towards her bedroom from which Zacky was emerging from. Catching a look at his face, Elizabeth stopped and burst out laughing so hard she thought her ribs would explode. He gave her a puzzled look and when he saw Brian’s face he understood. “Fucking girls” he muttered irritably under his breathe, heading to his bedroom.

Brian cornered Elizabeth in a corner of her room and blocked her way with his body. Her laughter began to subside as she looked up at him. He had a faint smirk on his lips.

“You know, for a while I thought you died.” She said playfully, putting her small hand on his chest.

Brian looked down at her and his smirk turned into a smile. “I know I sleep like the dead but really?” he said light-heartedly.

He was glad to see that she was recovered and back to her normal self. He wasn’t going to bombard her with any questions just yet, he would leave that for Zacky and Matt later.

“I’m happy you’re all patched up” he said carefully yet sincerely.

Elizabeth sighed and moved towards him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her body into his. His arms snaked around her waist and he held her gently in his arms.

“Thanks for being so amazing the other night” she said pulling away slightly to look into his eyes.

He just beamed at her and kissed her forehead lovingly. “You’re most welcome Lizzy.” he whispered.

The sound of someone clearing their throat broke them out of their little world into which they had retreated. Brian turned around and smiled impishly at Jimmy, who’s eyebrows were furrowed.

“I don’t know how you can even take him seriously with that shit all over his face” Jimmy said mockingly gesturing at Brian.

“You don’t look any better Jimbo” said Brian sarcastically, rolling his eyes for emphasis as he released Elizabeth from their embrace.

Jimmy laughed and turned in the direction of the bathroom. “You know what they say about me though, in situations like these, don’t you” he asked.

“What do they say?” asked Elizabeth curiously.

“A spoon full of Jimmy helps the whole world go down!” he said laughing maniacally and skipping away like a five year old.

Elizabeth shook her head and followed Brian out of the room “I should have known” she muttered.